Related terms

Pederasty or paederasty (literally 'boy-love',
see
etymology below) refers to a sexual relationship, expressed or
not, between an adolescent boy and an adult male. Pederasty has
existed from earliest times through a variety of customs and
practices within different cultures.

In the past century, the term pederasty has seen
a number of different uses. In the classic and academic sense, it
refers to the erotic relationship between an adult male and an
adolescent boy. Such
relationships may be sexually expressed or not, consensual or
nonconsensual, sentimental or commercial, and their legality will
vary depending on local age of
consent laws, sexual assault laws, and prohibitions on homosexuality. The term
can also be employed of the attraction of the man to the boy,
whether or not reciprocated.

Pederasty is contrasted with the other two forms
of male homosexuality, androphilia and gender-structured
relations, which are currently prevalent in modern
industrialized societies. It is generally not used for lesbian relations.

In the West it was first represented by the
institutions of Ancient
Greece, where it reached its height in 5th century
BC, when legal and moral sanctions were made against it. Athens
(see Athenian
pederasty). There it was the subject of philosophic debates and
legal oratory in which penetrative sex was unfavorably compared
with erotic relationships which did not debase either of the
participants. (see The
Greeks below). Later repression of male love culminating in the
persecution of homosexuals during Mediaeval
times and the Spanish
Inquisition and Renaissance
Italy also stemmed from the growing Christian movements in
Europe.

Starting with Geoffrey
Gorer in 1966, anthropologists have postulated three
subdivisions of homosexuality as
age-structured, egalitarian
and gender-structured.
Pederasty as a cross-cultural phenomenon is considered the
predominant expression of male-male sexuality as viewed through
historical record, though the practice has varied significantly
within different cultures. It has been associated with
coming-of-age ritual, the acquisition of virility and manly virtue,
educational aspiration and the pederastic military use of
teenagers.

The Western model of male adult relations is seen
by researchers as a departure from this norm since it has rarely
appeared as a pattern in other times and places. Unlike the other
models, it ‘assumes that homosexuality is not merely a behavior,
but something innate to a person’s real being.’ In such societies,
the practise of pederasty tends to be condemned at a legal and
moral level:

"In some countries, such as England, pederasty is considered to
be pedophilia, and in the United States most agree that pederasty
is the abuse of boys, especially those between 12 and 16 years old
(Crosson-Tower 2007)

In this sense, such cultures do not see the
practise of pederasty as something in line with any ideological or
traditional model, but rather - that the behaviour has become
partially integrated into the Child
Sexual Abuse model.

Lexicological considerations

In modern anthropologic and
sexologic parlance, "pederasty" is used as a generic term to
describe the cultural phenomenon of erotic relations between men
and adolescent boys, whether chaste or of a sexual nature. However,
dictionary definitions of the practice reduce it to anal
intercourse, ranging from moralistic ones based on the Christian
discourse on homosexuality (Oxford Compact Edition, 1971, gives,
"Unnatural connexion with a boy; sodomy.") to ones focused on the
mechanics of a sexual act (Merriam-Webster (on-line edition) gives,
"Pederast: one that practices anal intercourse especially with a
boy")http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/pederasty.
In 1980 under the aegis of
National Organization for Women, feminists adopted a resolution
on lesbian and gay
rights, which defined pederasty as "the involvement of children by
adults in sexual activity," claiming that "over 90% of all
pederasts are heterosexual males who seek out young girls as their
victims." The text of the resolution read:"Whereas, pederasty is an
issue of exploitation and violence, not affectional/sexual
preference/orientation."

In current use, the term or its cognate may be used to describe
any sexual relations between an adult male and a boy. Sometimes (as
in the French pédé), it is used for all male homosexuality - often in a
pejorative sense. In
the English-speaking world the term is now popularly used to
describe sexual relations between adults and boys below the
age
of consent in their respective community. In the news media and
in common parlance, the term tends to be used as a synonym for
pedophilia, even
though the latter typically designates sexual contact between
adults and prepubescent children, which is distinct from
pederasty's application to relations between adults and youths who
have reached puberty.

Academic definitions

In sexology, anthropology and history, the term
"pederasty" has generally been used to describe relationships and
desires that conform more to the classical understanding of the
practice than to its modern interpretations.

According to Vern L.
Bullough, a member of the editorial board of Paidika, pederasty
is "The erotic relationship between an adult male and a youth,
generally one between the ages of twelve and seventeen, in which
the older partner is attracted to the younger one who returns his
affection" and also as "the relationship between a man and a
pubescent or postpubertal boy, generally under the age of eighteen"
further indicating that that "modern industrial societies have by
and large rejected traditional pederastic relationships." glbtq
glossary While relationships in ancient Greece involved boys
from 12 to about 17 or 18 (Cantarella, 1992; Percy, 1996), in Japan
the younger member ranged in age from 11 to about 19 (Saikaku,
1990; Schalow, 1989).

Criticisms of pederasty

Pederasty is a controversial practice, and a
number of different accusations are leveled against it. Religious
sources continue to group it in the same moral category as
homosexuality in general, labeling both practices "unnatural" and
"perverse". Self-described child abuse prevention organizations
assert that it is impossible for non-adults to offer "informed
consent" to sexual activity - arguing that "consent" assumes
certain knowledge and life experiences that a child or teenager is
unlikely to have.http://www.prevent-abuse-now.com/frcrebut.htm
Many in the psychological community view adult-minor sexual
relations as dangerous to the mental health of the minor. Finally,
abusive illegal pederastic relationships often are reported in the
media, validating certain aspects of such accusations. Such
relationships may raise issues of morality and functionality,
agency for the youth and parental authority. http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/pederasty,2.html

Religious opposition

Religious opposition to pederasty makes no
distinction between legal and illegal practices, but opposes all
such relationships basing itself on scriptural arguments.

Some "gay-positive" writers, in their work of
interpreting Christian teachings, have concluded that Paul's
criticism of same-sex love do not target those for whom such
affections come naturally, but rather those who indulge such
pleasures by choice, with the example given being "the Hellenistic
practice of erotic behavior with young males." Their work suggests
that religious opposition to same sex relations should restrict
itself to pederastic relationships, with their presumed abuse of
power. But a position paper of the Anglican
Church rejects that contention, claiming that, ''The
Graeco-Roman "ideal" did not entail erotic love of children, but of
young (teenage) males, of the same age that young woman would be
given in marriage. Frequently the more mature male was only
slightly older than the partner. Had Paul intended to proscribe
pederasty by using these terms (such as we understand pederasty
today), he had recourse to many other more precise terms. In fact,
the discussion in Romans, with its inclusion of female homoerotic
behaviour, indicates that exploitation and victimisation were not
the issue. (Paul has a lot to say about the abuse of power
elsewhere).'' Position
paper: How Is Homosexuality Understood in Scripture, Tradition, and
in Contemporary Theology

The Catholic Church, while itself implicated in
scandals over pederasts in its clergy, is at the same time one of
the main groups working to prohibit the practice of pederasty. On
Feb. 2, 1961
the Vatican issued a
document, “Instruction on the Careful Selection and Training of
Candidates for the States of Perfection and Sacred Orders,” barring
from the priesthood anyone who has "perverse inclinations to
homosexuality or pederasty."http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9436430/
Then, in 1992,
the Church organized an international congress in Bangkok on "The
Abuse of Children in Prostitution and Pornography," using the
occasion to call for pederasty to be declared a "crime against
humanity."

Secular opposition

Secular opposition, unlike religious opposition,
does not target pederasty per se, but distinguishes between
practices which are legal and those that are illegal. Thus,
same-sex relations with male as well as female youths, when against
the law, are opposed by many groups, from law enforcement to
NGO's such as
ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of
Children for Sexual Purposes) http://www.ecpat.net/eng/index.asp
- a non-religious group working to combat the commercial
exploitation of children, such as child prostitution and
trafficking in children. Where the relations are permitted by law,
as in the case of non-commercial relations with youths above the
age of consent, considered legally to fall under the category of
legitimate homosexual relationships, secular groups have not
expressed an opinion.

Accusation of abuse

Men in such relationships are accused of being
necessarily materialistic and manipulative. The claim is that the
older partner's interest in the younger is always purely for sexual
gratification, and that beneath a guise of caring or loving, and a
veneer of acceptability of endowing the younger partner with
"choice", these relationships are universally damaging to the youth
because they are based on mutual deception. The attention given by
the older to the younger is assailed as fundamentally
self-interested, and the claim is made that the youths are
discarded once past the age of attraction.

Criminality

While sexually expressed pederasty can be
lawful within certain legal boundaries in many jurisdictions,
several types of laws are usually brought to bear on such
relationships. Age of
consent laws set a lower limit on the age at which youths are
enfranchised to enter into a sexual relationship with another
person. This limit varies from one jurisdiction to another, ranging
from the early teens to the early twenties.

Other laws restrict adults who are in positions
of authority over a youth from entering into a sexual relationship
with that youth. However, no laws criminalize love relationships
which are not sexually expressed. Relations between adults and
youth are also subject to generally applicable laws against
rape and kidnapping.

Academic controversy

The history and scope of pederasty has
been the subject of extensive censorship. In the West, the topic
was suppressed in academic circles for much of modern history. The
unspoken ban was broken only in 1905 by the German historian Erich
Bethe with his study Dorian Boy-Love: its Ethic, its Idea. In the
USA, as late as 2005, Haworth Press
withdrew from publication a volume on homosexuality in classical
antiquity titled Same-Sex Desire and Love in Greco-Roman Antiquity
and in the Classical Tradition of the West. This was in response to
criticism from American right-wing groups that objected to book's
depiction of classical pederasty, as well as to the substance of a
chapter by the American academic Bruce Rind which integrated
observations from history, anthropology, and zoology, and which was
interpreted by some readers as advocating pedophilia.

The publisher, in a letter to the editors,
attempted to exonerate Rind from the accusation and conceded that
the article was sound, but stood by his decision to withdraw it "to
avoid negative press" and "economic repercussions." Later Haworth
reversed course and announced that the book and journal would be
published, but without Rind's controversial essay. Mr. Rind's essay
is to be published in a future "supplementary volume" of The
Journal of Homosexuality, together with counterarguments advanced
by his critics. http://chronicle.com/daily/2005/10/2005101202n.htm

Historical synopsis

In antiquity, pederasty as an educational
institution for the inculcation of moral and cultural values,
as well as a form of sexual expression, entered history from the
Archaic period onwards in
Ancient Greece, though Cretan
ritual objects reflecting an already formalized practice date
to the late Minoan
civilization, around 1650 BCE. As idealized by the Greeks,
pederasty was a relationship
and bond – whether sexual or chaste – between an adolescentboy and an adultman outside of his immediate family.
While most Greek men engaged in relations with both women and boys,
exceptions to the rule were known, some avoiding relations with
women, and others rejecting relations with boys. In Rome,
relations with boys took a more informal and less civic path, men
either taking advantage of dominant social status to extract sexual
favors from their social inferiors, or carrying on illicit
relationships with freeborn boys.

Analogous relations were documented among other
ancient peoples, such as the Thracians, the
Celts and
various Germanic
peoples such as the Heruli and the
Taifali.
According to Plutarch, the
ancient Persians,
too, had long practiced it, an opinion seconded by Sextus
Empiricus who asserted that the laws of the Persians
"recommended" the practice. Herodotus,
however, asserts they learned copulation with boys (παισὶ
μίσγονται) from the Greeks, by the use of that term reducing their
practice to what John
Addington Symonds describes as the "vicious form" of pederasty,
as opposed to the more restrained and cultured one valued by the
Greeks.

Opposition to the carnal aspects of pederasty
existed concurrently with the practice, both within and outside of
the cultures in which it was found. Among the Greeks, a few cities
prohibited it, and in others, such as Sparta,
only the chaste form of pederasty was permitted, according to some
ancient commentators. Likewise, Plato's writings devalue and
finally condemn sexual intercourse with the boys one loved, while
valuing the self-disciplined lover who abstained from consummating
the relationship.

The Judaeo-Christian faiths also condemned
sodomy (while defining
that term variously), a theme later promulgated by Islam and, later
still, by the
Baha'i Faith. Within the Baha'i faith, pederasty is the only
mention of any type of homosexuality by Bahá'u'lláh.
"We shrink, for very shame, from treating of the subject of boys.
Fear ye the Merciful, O peoples of the world! Commit not that which
is forbidden you in Our Holy Tablet, and be not of those who rove
distractedly in the wilderness of their desires."

Within this blanket condemnation of sodomy,
pederasty in particular was a target. The second century preacher
Clement
of Alexandria used divine pederasty as an indictment of
Greek
religion: "For your gods did not abstain even from boys. One
loved Hylas, another Hyacinthus, another Pelops, another
Chrysippus, another Ganymedes. These are the gods your wives are to
worship!" The early Christian Roman
emperors quashed pederasty, together with the other overtly
sexual manifestations of Greco-Roman religion and culture, as part
of the imposition of Christianity as a state religion These
punishments were often linked to the penance given after the
Sacrament
of Confession. At Rome, the punishment
was burning at the stake since the time of Theodosius I
(390). Nonetheless the practice continued to surface, giving rise
to proverbs such as With wine and boys around, the monks have no
need of the Devil to tempt them, an early Christian saying from the
Middle East.

Etymology and usage

“Pederasty” derives from the
combination of “” (the Greek stem for boy or child) with “” (Greek
for lover; cf. “eros”). Late
Latin
“pæderasta” was borrowed in the sixteenth century directly from
Plato’s classical Greek in The Symposium. (Latin transliterates “”
as “ae”.) The word first appeared in the English language during
the Renaissance, as
“pæderastie” (e.g. in Samuel
Purchas' Pilgrimage.''), in the sense of sexual relations
between men and boys. Beside its use in the classical sense, the
term has also been used as a synonym for anal sex, irrespective of
the nature of the partner. A nineteenth century sexological
treatise discusses men practicing the "insertion of the penis into
the anus of women," as "pederasty with their wives."

In modern academic parlance, however, “pederasty”
is used as a generic term which includes the cultural phenomenon of
erotic relationships between men and adolescent boys, wherever
encountered. (See “Reference” section below, esp. Hubbard,
El-Rouayheb, Sergent, Percy, Dover, Leupp, and many others.)

Social class factors

Pederastic relationships in a number
of different societies were identified with the upper classes, or
with class difference between the partners. This class difference
at times was seen as facilitating the relationship by providing
upward mobility when the man was from the upper class and the boy
from a poor family. In other cases it became a symbol of the power
of love to transcend class distinctions, as in pre-modern Japan
where the fact that high-born lovers entered into devoted
relationships with boys from the lower classes was held up to
admiration.

In ancient Sparta pederasty was practiced by the
aristocracy as an educational device. In Athens the slaves were
expressly forbidden from entering into pederastic relations with
the free-born boys. In mediaeval Islamic civilization, pederastic
relations "were so readily accepted in upper-class circles that
there was often little or no effort to conceal their
existence."

The ancient world

The Greeks

The ancient Greeks, in the context of the
pederastic city-states, were the first to describe, study,
systematize, and establish pederasty as an institution. As keystone
of the Greek paideia,
the relationship between lover and beloved (erastes and eromenos) was valued for
fostering excellence in the youth as well as in the man who loved
him.

Plato was an early critic of sexual intercourse
in pederastic relationships, proposing that men's love of boys
avoid all sexual expression and instead progress from admiration of
the lover's specific virtues to love of virtue itself in abstract
form. While copulation with boys was often criticized and seen as
shameful and brutish, other aspects of the relationship were
considered beneficial, as indicated in proverbs such as A lover is
the best friend a boy will ever have.

Pederastic relationships were dyadic mentorships.
These mentorships were sanctioned by the state, and consecrated by
the religious establishment. See
Mythology of same-sex love. The pederastic relationship also
had to be approved by the boy's father. Boys entered into such
relationships in their teens, around the same age that Greek girls
were given in marriage. The mentor was expected to teach the young
man or to see to his education, and to give him certain appropriate
ceremonial gifts. Often such relationships took place in a military
context. See
Homosexuality in the militaries of ancient Greece.

Pederasty was the idealized form of an
age-structured homoeroticism that, like all social institutions,
had other, less idyllic, manifestations, such as prostitution or
the use of one’s slave boys.

The physical dimension ranged from fully chaste
to sexual intercourse. Pederastic art usually shows the man
standing, grasping the boy's chin with one hand and reaching to
fondle his genitals with the other. While historians such as Dover
and Halperin hold that only the man experienced pleasure, art and
poetry indicate reciprocation of desire, and other historians
assert that it is "a modern fairy tale that the younger eromenos
was never aroused."

Pederastic relationships were known throughout
most of ancient Greece. The state was said to benefit from the fact
that the friendship functioned as a restraint on the youth. In
Sparta, for example, if he committed a crime it was not the boy but
his trainer who was punished. The army was potentiated by the
practice, as the two fought side by side, with each vying to shine
before the other.

Pederastic couples were also said to be feared by
tyrants, because the bond between the friends was stronger than
that of obedience to a tyrannical ruler. Plutarch gives as examples
the Athenians Harmodius
and Aristogeiton. Others, such as Aristotle, claimed that some
states encouraged pederasty as a means of population
control, by directing love and sexual desire into
non-procreative channels, a feature of pederasty later employed by
other cultures, such as the Siwan, and perhaps the
Melanesian.

The Romans

In Roman times,
pederasty largely lost its status as a ritual part of education
— a process already begun by the increasingly
sophisticated and cosmopolitan Greeks — and was instead
seen as an activity primarily driven by one's sexual desires and
competing with desire for women. The social acceptance of
pederastic relations waxed and waned during the centuries.
Conservative thinkers condemned it — along with other
forms of indulgence. Tacitus attacks the
Greek customs of "gymnasia et otia et turpes amores" (palaestrae, idleness, and
shameful loves).

Christianity

The rise of Christianity
led to the suppression of pederasty by the Byzantine
emperors, as it was one of the mainstays of a classical
pagan culture which the
church
fathers identified as in conflict with Biblical teaching. Such
teaching includes references to the Old
Testament, in which Leviticus decrees
death as the punishment for a number of sexual improprieties
including carnal relations between men.

Furthermore within some early second century
Christian communities even speech about pederasty was suppressed:
"Conversation about deeds of wickedness is appropriately termed
filthy [shameful] speaking, as talk about adultery and pederasty
and the like," and was to be "put to silence."

There are two pericopes found in two of the
synoptic
gospels (Matthew 8:5-13 and Luke 7:1-10) which recount the same
story in more or less slightly different terms. The same basic the
story is found in each book, which recounts the healing of a
"beloved slave," (it is this translation that leads to the argument
below, alternatives are "dear" or "valuable") has been interpreted
by some as supportive of male love. The centurion's servant healed
by Jesus is construed to have been his beloved, and this narrative
"as Jesus' acceptance of, and even collaboration in a pederastic
relationship," according to T. W. Jennings, professor of biblical
and constructive theology at
Chicago Theological Seminary. In contrast, other Biblical
scholars do not view Jesus' healing of the centurion's servant as
implicit approval for the Roman's treatment of his servant or any
of his actions, especially his leadership of a force occupying
Judea. The story was used to illustrate the soldier's faith and
cannot be taken to mean that Jesus condoned the lifestyle of a
pagan military officer.

Other venues

Pederasty in ancient times was not the
exclusive domain of the Greeks and Romans. Athenaeus in the
Deipnosophists states that the Celts also partook
and despite the beauty of their women, preferred the love of boys.
Some would regularly bed down on their animal skins with a lover on
each side. Other writers also attest to Celtic pederasty: Aristotle
(Politics, II 6.6. Athen. XIII 603a.), Strabo (iv. 199), and
Diodorus
Siculus (v. 32)). Some moderns have interpreted Athenaeus as
meaning that the Celts had a boy on each side, but that
interpretation is questioned by Hubbard, who reads it as meaning
that they had a boy one side and a woman on the other. (Hubbard,
2003; p.79)

Persian pederasty and its origins was debated
even in ancient times. Herodotus claimed
they had learned it from the Greeks: "...and [the Persians']
luxurious practices are of all kinds, and all borrowed: the Greeks
taught them pederasty." However, Plutarch asserts
that the Persians used eunuch boys to that end long before contact
between the cultures. In either case, Plato claimed they saw fit to
forbid it to the inhabitants of the lands they occupied, since "It
does not suit the rulers that their subjects should think noble
thoughts, nor that they should form the strong friendships and
attachments which these activities, and in particular love, tend to
produce."

Post-classical and modern forms

The record of pederastic
practices, whether as a continuation of the Mediterranean
traditions or as independent native traditions, as in China and
Japan, expands greatly, due to the better preservation of more
recent literary and historical materials. Before the 20th
century, relationships with a more or less pederastic element
were the usual pattern of male same-sex love.

The Middle East and Central Asia

For a period starting in the 800s and ending in
the mid 1800s, pederastic relationships, poetry, art and
spirituality were a prominent and pervasive feature of Islamic
culture from Moorish Spain to Northern India. The forms of this
pederasty ranged from the chaste and spiritual adoration of
beautiful youths at one extreme, to the violent and forcible use of
unwilling boys at the other. While sodomy was considered a major
sin, other aspects of same-sex relations were not, though they were
made problematic to various degrees at various times and
places.

Literature and art reflected the fascination with
love in general and beautiful boys in particular. The lover was
conceived as martyr and hero. His desire, known as ishq, was glorified as mad,
unreasonable, ecstatic, impossible to satisfy and leading even to
death. An Arab proverb claims that "Ishq is a fire that burns down
everything but the object of desire".

The Mughal period saw
strong pederastic influences in government, arts and literature.
Poetry in ghazal form was
a favorite means of such expression, produced by poets such as
Mir
Taqi Mir.

In central Asia the practice is reputed to have
long been widespread, and remains a part of the culture, as
exemplified by the proverb, Women for breeding, boys for pleasure,
but melons for sheer delight. Though no longer widely practiced,
boy marriages nevertheless still occur. In the aftermath of the
US-Afghan war, western mainstream media have reported derisively on
patterns of adult/adolescent male relationships, documented in
Kandahar
in Afghanistan.
These reports however have been characterized as "privileging a
political spin over more precise and informative writing", and as
suffering from ethnocentric bias (Stephanie
Skier, in queer.).

Besides relationships following the pederastic
model, cases of sexual brutality by men against youths —
in this instance as one aspect of the military
use of children — have also been documented. In the
northern, Turkic-speaking areas, one manifestation of the
pederastic tradition was the entertainers known as bacchá (a
TurkikUzbeki
term etymologically related to the Persian
bachcheh, "boy" or "child", sometimes with the connotation of
"catamite"). Boy prostitution was also widely reported in Karachi,
leading General
Sir Charles Napier to attempt in 1845 to have them closed down,
worried about the "corrupting" effect on his troops. His attempt
was foiled by the local amirs, who had a vested interest in keeping
the institutions open. The practice was noted as late as 1932, when
League of
Nations investigators reported that a number of young Indian
boys were engaged in homosexual prostitution, many of them
suffering from venereal disease.

In pre-modern Islam there was a "widespread
conviction that beardless youths possessed a temptation to adult
men as a whole, and not merely to a small minority of deviants."
With the advent of Islam, homosexuality
and its practices were condemned as an immoral act and a sin
against God.

Islamic jurisprudence generally considers that
attraction towards beautiful youths is normal and natural. In order
for any sexual act to be a punishable offense four witnesses were
required.

The manifestations of pederastic attraction vary.
At one extreme they are indeed of a chaste nature, incorporated
into Islamic mysticism. (see Sufism) Conservative
Islamic theologians condemned the custom of contemplating the
beauty of young boys. Their suspicions may have been justified, as
some dervishes boasted
of enjoying far more than "glances", or even kisses. Despite
opposition from the clerics, the practice has survived in Islamic
countries until only recent years, according to Murray and Roscoe.
See References
section below

In post-Islamic Persia, where, as Louis Crompton
claims, "boy love flourished spectacularly", art and literature
also made frequent use of the pederastic topos. These celebrate the
love of the wine boy, as do the paintings and drawings of artists
such as Reza Abbasi
(1565
– 1635). Western
travelers reported that at Abbas' court (some time between 1627 and 1629) they saw
evidence of homoerotic practices. Male houses of prostitution amrad
khaneh, "houses of the beardless", were legally recognized and paid
taxes.

In the Ottoman empire, same-sex relations between
men and youths were often of a mercantile nature. The sex
workers involved were either entertainers such as the köçeks or masseurs in the hammams
known as tellak. Although
zamparas (men drawn to women) outnumbered kulamparas (men drawn to
boys) in society, Ottoman military culture (especially that of
Janissary
culture) had pederasty as a noteworthy aspect . Osman Agha of
Temeşvar who
fell captive to the Austrians
in 1688 wrote
in his memoirs that one night an Austrian boy approached him for
sex, telling him "for I know all Turks are pederasts".

At times soldiers from the Janissary regiments
(named orta) skirmished for rights over a young and beautiful
novice (civelek). In 1770s, Âşık Sadık the
poet wrote, in an address to the Sultan: Lût kavmi döğüşür, put
kavmi bozar. Askerin lûtîdir, bil Padişahım ("The people of Lot
fight, the people of idolatry spoil. Know, my Sultan, that your
soldiers are sodomites"). Studies of Ottoman criminal law, which is
based on the Sharia, reveal that
persistent sodomy with non-consenting boys was a serious offense
and those convicted faced capital
punishment.

China

In tenth-century China courting male couples
consisted of the older qi xiong (契兄) and the younger qi di. (契弟)
(The terms mean, literally, sworn elder brother and younger
brother. It is very common in the Chinese culture to conceptualize
many kinds of alliances as fictive kinship relationships). Boy
marriages, which lasted for a set period after which the younger
partner would find a wife (often with the help of the older one)
appear to have been part of the culture in the province of Fujian in pre-modern
times. The marriages were said to have been celebrated by the two
families in traditional fashion, including the ritual "nine cups of
tea". The popularity of these pederastic relationships in Fujian,
where they even had a patron god, Tu Er Shen,
gave rise to one of the euphemistic expressions for same-sex love
in China, "the southern custom".

Men's sexual interest in youths was also
reflected in prostitution, with young male sex workers fetching
higher prices than their female counterparts as recently as the
beginning of the twentieth century. In Tianjin there were
thirty five male brothels, housing 800 boys, and men from the area
were assumed to be expert in anal relations. Though the
superintendent of trade at Guangzhou issued
an annual warning to the population against permitting westerners
access to boy prostitutes ("do not indulge the Western barbarian
with all our best favors"), Europeans were increasingly welcomed in
the boy brothels.

Japan

In Japan, the practice of shudo, "the Way of the
Young", paralleled closely the course of European pederasty.
It was prevalent in the religious community and samurai society from the
mediaeval
period on, and eventually grew to permeate all of society. It fell
out of favor around the end of the 19th
century, concurrently with the growing European
influence.

Its legendary founder is Kūkai, also
known as Kōbō Daishi, the founder of the Shingon
school of Buddhism, who is
said to have brought the teachings of male love over from China,
together with the teachings of the Buddha.
Monks often entered into love relationships with beautiful youths
known as " chigo", which
were recorded in literary works known as "chigo
monogatari".

Early European visitors were struck by the
openness and ubiquity of such relationships. The PortugueseJesuitAlessandro
Valegnani, in 1591 observed that
"the youths and their partners, not seeing the matter as grave, do
not hide it. Indeed they find honor in it and speak of it openly.
To wit, not only does the doctrine of the bonzes not view it as evil, but
they themselves engage in this custom, seeing it as completely
natural and even virtuous."

Korea

One of the earliest mentions of male attraction to
boys is that of Gongmin
of Goryeo (r. 1351–1374), the 31st king of the Goryeo
dynasty, who was famous for his predilection for falling in love
with young boys. After the death of his wife in 1365 he is reputed to
have spent his time in the practice of Buddhism and
relations with boys, establishing an organization for their
recruitment.

Paul Michaut, a French physician writing in
1893,
described Korea as a country where "[p]ederasty is general, it is
part of the mores; it is practiced publicly, in the street, without
the least reprobation." He associated its prevalence with that of
syphilis which was
likewise general.

Australasia

In Melanesia, many
native cultures employed boy insemination rites integral to
coming-of-age rituals lasting from mid- to late childhood, as
documented in the writings of Gilbert
Herdt. In Papua-New
Guinea and nearby islands, some native tribes (about 20% at the
end of the twentieth century, a proportion that is decreasing as
contacts with foreigners cause western morals to become prevalent)
consider sperm to be the essence of masculinity and a source of
strength, and a substance that does not form spontaneously but must
be introduced. As a result, a mentor, chosen by the father and
ideally the mother's young adult brother, has the duty of planting
it in the body of their prepubescent son as part of extended
initiation
rites.

The mentor also has the duty of educating the boy
and seeing to his proper entry into manhood. They sleep and work
together until the boy is mature. Men who have had their first or
second child are expected to relinquish the mentoring function to
younger adults. Casual encounters between boys and men are also
accepted, but the boy must be the recipient, to avoid damaging his
growth. Thus the Melanesian male would go through a sexual cycle
beginning with homosexuality, passing through bisexuality and
ending with heterosexuality.

North America

"Of the Koniagas of Kodiak
Island and the Thinkleets we read, 'The most repugnant of all
their practices is that of male concubinage. A Kodiak mother
will select her handsomest and most promising boy, and dress and
rear him as a girl, teaching him only domestic duties, keeping him
at women's work, associating him with women and girls, in order to
render his effeminacy complete. Arriving at the age of ten or
fifteen years, he is married to some wealthy man who regards such a
companion as a great acquisition. These male concubines are called
Achnutschik or Schopans' (the authorities quoted being Holmberg,
Langsdorff, Billing, Choris, Lisiansky and Marchand). The same is
the case in Nutka Sound
and the Aleutian
Islands, where 'male concubinage obtains throughout, but not to
the same extent as amongst the Koniagas.' The objects of
'unnatural' affection have their beards carefully plucked out as
soon as the face-hair begins to grow, and their chins are tattooed
like those of the women. In California the
first missionaries found the same practice, the youths being called
Joya."

Pederasty is controlled, restricted to older
teenagers, and can be considered a form of child abuse in the
United States. It remains widely censured, whether legally or
illegally expressed. In late 2006, Mark Foley-R,
former co-chair of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited
Children, resigned in disgrace after it became public that he had
sent sexually explicit e-mails and instant messages to former
Congressional pages. (A few years earlier,
a sex scandal had occurred among American Catholics when many
clergy were discovered to have sexual relations with young altar
boys.)

Central America

Bernal
Diaz del Castillo, in his
The Conquest of New Spain, reported that the Mexica peoples
regularly practiced pederastic relationships, and male adolescent
sacred
prostitutes would congregate in temples. The conquistadores, like most
Europeans of the 16th century, were horrified by the widespread
acceptance of sex between men and youths in Aztec society, and used
it as one justification for the extirpation of native society,
religion and culture, and the taking of the lands and wealth; of
all customs of the Nahuatl-speaking
peoples, only human
sacrifice produced a greater disapproval amongst the Spaniards in
Mexico. The
custom died out with the collapse of the Aztec civilization.

Though early Mayans are thought
to have been strongly antagonistic to same-sex relationships, later
Mayan states employed pederastic practices. Their introduction was
ascribed to the god Chin.
One aspect was that of the father procuring a younger lover for his
son. Juan
de Torquemada mentions that if the (younger) boy was seduced by
a stranger, the penalty was equivalent to that for adultery.
Bernal
Diaz reported statues of male pairs making love in the temples
at Cape
Catoche, Yucatan.

Europe

Pederastic eros in the West, while remaining mostly
hidden, has nevertheless revealed itself in a variety of settings.
Legal records are one of the more important windows into this
secret world, since for much of the time pederastic relations, like
other forms of homosexual relations, were illegal. The expression
of desire through literature and art, albeit in coded fashion, can
also afford a view of the pederastic interests of the author.

Reflecting the conflicted outlook on male loves,
some northern European writers ascribed pederastic tendencies to
populations in southern latitudes. Richard
Francis Burton evolved his theory of the Sotadic
zone, an area bounded roughly by N. Lat. 43° N. Lat. 30°,
stretching from the western shores of the Mediterranean
Sea to the Pacific
Ocean. Likewise, Wilhelm
Kroll, writing in the Pauly-Wissowa
encyclopaedia in 1906, asserted that "The roots of pederasty are
found first of all in the existence of a contrary sexual feeling
that is probably more frequent in southern regions than in
countries with moderate climates."

The Renaissance

The Renaissance,
inspired by the rediscovery of the philosophy and art of the
ancient world, was a fertile time for such relations. Among the
luminaries of the time who praised or depicted romantic liaisons
with youths were Marsilio
Ficino, Benvenuto
Cellini, and, it is speculated, Leonardo
da Vinci .

According to one art historian, "The most
conventional object of homoerotic desire was the adolescent youth,
usually imagined as beardless." Consequently, pederastic aesthetics influenced art and
literature throughout Europe. Concurrent with the resurgence of
pederasty was a strong effort by the ecclesiastical and civil
authorities to keep in check male homoerotic practices. Among
these, the Ufficiali
di Notte in Florence, as well as the moralizing monk Savonarola were
more notable.

Albania

In his travel journal (October 20th, 1809),
Cam Hobhouse reports that pederasty was openly practiced among
the Albanians, and Lord Byron
includes in his Childe
Harold an Albanian song with pederastic themes, suppressed at
publication.

As late as the mid-1800s, Albanian young men
between 16 and 24 seduced boys from about 12 to 17. In the
literature, the lover is called ashik and the beloved, dyllber. A
Geg married at
the age of 24 or 25, and then he usually, but not always, gave up
boy-love.

The combination of the homosocial environment of
the English public schools and colleges, coupled with the close
study of the classics gave rise to the resurgence of a discreet
homoerotic culture which was at least in part constructed along the
lines of classical pederasty. Elite schools such as Eton played
a key role. There, William
Johnson Cory, a renowned master from 1845 until his forced
resignation in 1872, evolved a style of pedagogic pederasty which
influenced a number of his pupils – many of whom went on to take
their place among the most renowned statesmen of the time. His
Ionica, a work of poetry reflecting his pederastic sensibilities,
was read in intellectual circles and “made a stir” at Oxford in
1859.

The work of the Uranian poets was characterized
by an idealised appeal to the history of Ancient Greece and a
sentimental infatuation for adolescent boys, as well as
by a use of conservative verse
forms.

The fame of their work was limited by late
Victorian
and Edwardiantaboos, by the extremely
small editions (often privately printed) in which their verse was
promulgated, and by the generally saccharine and occasionally
misogynistic nature of their poetry. However, historian Neil
McKenna has argued that Uranian poetry had a central role in the
upper-class homosexual subcultures of the Victorian period,
insisting that poetry was the main medium through which writers
like Oscar Wilde,
George
Ives and
Rennell Rodd, 1st Baron Rennell sought to challenge the
prejudices of the age.

Marginally associated with their world were more
famous writers such as Edward
Carpenter, as well as the obscure but prophetic poet-printer
Ralph
Chubb, with his majestic lithographic volumes celebrating the
boy as an Ideal. The Uranian quest to revive the Greek notion of
paiderastia was not successful; later gaypoets would look instead to the
androphilic
inspiration of Walt Whitman
and A. E.
Housman.

Reaction and retrenchment

The end of the 19th century,
marked by Oscar Wilde's
trial, saw increasing conflict over the issue of social acceptance
of pederasty. A number of other pederastic scandals erupted around
this time, such as the one involving the German
industrialist
Friedrich Alfred Krupp, which drove him to suicide. In the same
vein, in a work that was to influence the evolution of communism's attitude towards
same-sex love, the German political philosopher Friedrich
Engels, Karl Marx's
collaborator, denounced the ancient Greeks for "the abominable
practice of sodomy" and for degrading "their gods and themselves
with the myth of Ganymede".

This strife also involved the Wandervogel
movement, a youth organization emphasizing a romantic view of
nature. Wandervogel took flight in 1896, the same year
that the journal Der Eigene''
went to press. It was published by a twenty-two-year-old German
(Adolf
Brand), and it advocated classical pederasty as a cure for the
moral flabbiness of German youth. Influenced by the ideas of
Gustav
Wyneken, the Wandervogel movement was quite open about its
homoerotic tendencies, although this kind of affection was supposed
to be expressed in a nonsexual way. The founding of Young
Wandervogel happened largely as a reaction to the public scandal
about these erotic tendencies, which were said to alienate young
men from women.

The English schools, however, continued to be
“hotbeds of pederasty” into the twentieth century. C. S. Lewis
when talking about his life at Malvern
College, an
English public school, acknowledged that pederasty "was the
only counterpoise to the social struggle; the one oasis (though
green only with weeds and moist only with foetid water) in the
burning desert of competitive ambition."

However, after the middle of the century, the
underage pederastic element of the gay liberation movement was
increasingly
repudiated by the movement as a whole. This has been criticized
by Camille
Paglia and others as counterproductive and conducive to a
ghettoization of homosexuality. In the decades since embracing an
egalitarian model of relationships, the western gay-rights movement
has made rapid progress toward
marriage equality,
legal protection, and other goals. Instead of using Greek
pederasty as a model, it is those rarer Hellenic instances of
homosexuality which are more egalitarian (such as between Alexander
the Great and his friend Hephaestion)
that gay love looked to for a model of present-day
relationships.

Rejection by the gay liberation movement

The gay
liberation movement was in part inspired by, and included,
prominent pederasts such as Oscar Wilde,
André
Gide, Paul Goodman
and Allen
Ginsberg. Likewise, prominent homosexuals defended consensual
relationships between adults and adolescents. For example, Larry
Kramer, an AIDS activist and homosexual author wrote that he
believes that some children desire to "have sex with their
homosexual elders, be they teachers or anyone else," that "This is
far from 'recruitment.'"; and that he believes most homosexuals who
had such early experiences recall them positively.

In the late 1970's the defense of
pederasty was picked up by NAMBLA, an
organization that presses for the abolition of age of consent laws,
and that may be associated with the introduction of the euphemistic man-boy love as an
alternative to pederasty, a term viewed by some as compromised by
prejudice. The expulsion of this organization from the
International Lesbian and Gay Association in 1994 seemed to create
a definitive break between the ephebephile and adult-homosexual
camps.

David Thorstad, of NAMBLA, who asserts
that pederasty is "love between a man and a youth of 12 to 18 years
of age, claims that "middle-class homosexuals, lesbians, and
feminists" say pederasty "has nothing to do with gay liberation."
While he admits that others define it as sexual abuse, he does not
share this view.

Homosexuals today, while distancing themselves
from the practice of modern-day pederasty, often discuss the
history of pederasty interchangeably with the history of
homosexuality. If they did not do so, they would have to disavow
any link between homosexuality and most of the historical figures
who practiced – and the artistic works which were inspired by –
same-sex love. That is not the case, however: modern-day
androphilic men have consistently cited as their forebears Western
artists with pederastic leanings.

Liminal same-sex
love — relations with young people on the threshold of
becoming adults — whether for pleasure or to further
social goals is no longer widely practiced, despite the lawful
status of such relations in countries granting erotic emancipation
to adolescents in their mid-teens. Even when legal, some in the
west perceive such relationships in the light of feminist
and postmodern
theory as an abuse
of power when the older partner is in a position of educational,
religious,
economic,
or other form of institutional authority over the younger partner.
Other observers criticize this as repressive, and point out that
appropriate and acceptable forms of sexuality for adolescents have
yet to be evolved.

Currently both illegal and legal forms of
pederasty are strongly condemned. In the United
States, a major political scandal known as the Mark
Foley scandal, or "Pagegate" broke out in autumn of 2006,
threatening the Republican leadership of the house and contributing
to the Democratic capture of the House and Senate in the fall
elections. The scandal was triggered by revelations that
congressman Foley was exchanging pederastic communications with a
number of teenage pages, over the course of several years, despite
longstanding warnings to the Republican leadership about his
excessive familiarity with teenage boys. Twenty-three years
earlier, in 1983, Democratic Congressman Gerry Studds
admitted having had an affair with a 17-year-old page a decade
earlier and was censured by the
United States House of Representatives but continued his career
in Congress.

The British serial
Queer as Folk which depicted a gay household including a
fifteen year old boy exploring his sexuality. The theater also has
addressed the topic, most recently in the play The
History Boys, which blends both comedy and tragedy, with
multiple layers and themes, including growing up, the wider purpose
of education in adult life, pederasty, teaching methods,
homosexuality, and the English education system.

A number of ads for Calvin Klein
jeans in 1995
depicting partially clad teenage boys were accused of having a
pederastic subtext. Critics targeted the novelty of tapping the
sexuality of teenage boys, rather than teenage girls. Also, they
pointed out a perceived "obvious man-boy sexual subtext." The ads
were pulled after only a short run in the face of public
disapproval.

Historical pederastic relationships

Over the course of history there have been a
number of recorded erotic relationships between older men and
adolescent boys. All of these followed at least some aspects of
classical pederasty. In some of these cases both members eventually
became well known historical figures, in others only one of the two
achieved that distinction.

Filmography

Beginning with the 1960s, films documented the
stories of relationships between men and boys.